Clement debuts, Reyes deals
JUPITER, Fla. — Continuing what’s become a lengthier — even arduous — grind back to a major-league rotation, Cardinals right hander Matt Clement made his first appearance in a game Tuesday, throwing for the Cardinals Double-A affiliate.
Clement threw 37 pitches and walked four of the seven batters he faced. While his command was flighty and his velocity sat in the mid-80s — according to the radar gun the Cardinals kept — his pitches all had wily movement.
Many of the at-bats were extended by pitches fouled off adding to his strike count.
“Obviously I’d like it to be a little higher, but it is the first time to hitters,” Clement said of the gun readings. ”As I throw with this intensity and over and over it’s going to increase. It was a first step in facing hitters. I can’t sit and worry about velocity right now. It’s going to be what it’s going to be. But I do feel like there’s more going to be coming out.”
Clement’s start drew members of the Cardinals brain trust — chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., GM John Mozeliak and farm director Jeff Luhnow – and, representing the uniformed personnel, bullpen coach Marty Mason.
Clement threw to Springfield catcher Brandon Yarbrough, pitching in front of a defense that included SS Tyler Greene, CF Jon Jay, 3B Allen Craig and 1B Mark Hamilton.
He faced several batters with major-league ability.
It was a camp day, so Clement threw against the Triple-A team, and the leadoff hitter was Colby Rasmus. Clememt got Rasmus to fly out to center on the third pitch he saw. If only all of the at-bats were that brief. The length of the at-bats got progressively longer from there as Clement attempted to tame his control even as his pace slowed.
There wasn’t a pitch he threw that didn’t have a cut or a sink to it.
There were few pitches that he threw for strikes.
Sixteen of the final 30 pitches he threw were balls. Eight of his strikes in that span were fouled off, including on up-and-in that caught the bat as the hitter flinched away.
After Jose Martinez reached on a fielding error, Clement walked the final two batters of the “first inning”. He fed Joe Mather and Josh Phelps a series of 84-mph and 86-mph sinkers that strayed low and lower and 83-mph pitch that came up and in on the righthanded hitters. Clement’s “inning” ended after his 20th pitch with the bases loaded.
In his second inning he struck out Nick Stavinoha on a breaking ball low in the zone after setting him up with an 85-mph sinker that Stavinoha fouled off. Rico Washington then put the punctuation on the day by working a nine-pitch walk from the Cardinals righthander.
“There were a few times where I pitched like I was in a normal game,” Clement said, ”and I was just a hair away from executing exactly how I want to execute pitches.”
Clement had shoulder surgery in Sept. 2006, and he missed all of last season recovering from the repair. The Cardinals signed him to a one-year deal with scads of options built in for performance. He has had an entire offseason bottled into this spring, going from a long-toss program to bullpens to live batting practice sessions and then, finally, to Tuesday’s game appearance.
He will start the season on the disabled list. His final two starts in Florida will help decide where he begins the year — in extended spring or on the verge of a rehab assignment.
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In additional pitching news: Going into the sixth inning, Anthony Reyes had pitched to one over the minimum. He had allowed a single to Nick Johnson and a walk to Ryan Zimmerman. Of the three hits he allowed, two were in the sixth inning. He had “like a 40-mph wind blowing” into the stadium. Colleague Joe Strauss, who was watching the game for the P-D, said he was effective, economical. Easily his best start of spring — and to do it front of interested teams, too.
Deals today. Could be dealt tomorrow?
“This is where I want to be, and I’m not really thinking about anything else,” Reyes just said. “This is where I want to invest.”
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Derrick Goold told everyone he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but really after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was drawn to MU's primo location between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball inbetween. 
Any chance Reyes might join the Cardinal rotation, with Thompson or Wellemeyer going to the pen (instead of Politte)? Anthony’s upside seems much higher than Brad’s, or Looper’s, for that matter. Pineiro is at least three weeks away. Clement sounds like he’s at least month away. Mulder sounds like he’s about a month away, more or less.
My fantasy (unrealistic, I know) is to see this progression over the next six weeks:
Wainwright in the rotation all season
Loshe at #2 until Carpenter returns in July, at which time Lohse, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, is traded to a contender for excellent prospects (deja vu for Loshe)
Looper - replaced by Mulder or Clement, whichever is ready first (Looper, in the last year of his contract, is traded to a team that needs a fifth starter in their rotation)
Wellemeyer - replaced by Pineiro by the third week of April (with Wellemeyer or Thompson traded to one of the teams that sorely needs righthanded relief help)
Reyes stays in the #5 slot until Mulder or Clement returns (whichever happens second), at which time Anthony’s value should be higher (assuming he pitches well) and he can be traded to a contender for good prospects.
Thompson in the pen temporarily until Politte is ready to come up from AAA tune-up, then Thompson (or Wellemeyer) is traded. Then Politte is traded in July to a contender, when Perez comes up from AAA.
If any of the starters goes on the DL, McClellan or Garcia or Boggs steps in to get their feet wet in preparation for next season.
2009 rotation:
Carpenter
Mulder
Wainwright
Pineiro
The best among McClellan, Garcia, Boggs
Is there a realistic chance of ANY of that happening? I admire the way Mozeliak and his staff are setting up a pipeline of starting pitching to avoid the extreme exposure the team suffered last year when one starter after another failed. This team has much better backup, drecovering from injuries, it’s true, but still with excellent talent and enough candidates that the probability of a sufficient number being healthy and effective is very good.
I think the flexibility and options in the rotation offsets the injuries and rehabs more than enough to make the rotation the positive surprise of the season for the Cardinals.